India and China along with three other nations accounted for almost 90 per cent of the IT spending in healthcare sector in the Asia Pacific region last year, research firm IDC has said.

According to IDC Health Insights, Australia, China, India, Singapore and South Korea represented close to 90 per cent of Asia Pacific region's IT spending in the healthcare sector last year.

IT spending in the sector across the region - excluding Japan - is expected to show a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8 per cent till 2018.

For the same period, healthcare sector in China is expected to clock the fastest growth, rising at a CAGR of 11.7 per cent, the study said.

While the Asia Pacific nations are very disparate when it comes to infrastructure, IT maturity and healthcare systems, every country - developed or developing - is looking to create a sustainable healthcare system, IDC said.

"The spending pattern clearly demarcates the developing and the mature economies in the region. There emerge two clear groups of countries when it comes to IT maturity," IDC Health Insights Asia Pacific research manager Sash Mukherjee said.

The countries where hardware spending comprises more than 50 per cent of the total IT spending are still focused on infrastructure, Mr Mukherjee added.

"The mature economies are expected to spend less than 50 per cent on hardware. (Places) where the initial infrastructure investments have been made, the spending pattern shifts to software and services," she said.

"Growth will be driven by infrastructural spending in developing countries and collaborative tools in the mature economies."

The Asia Pacific region cannot afford to stop investing in healthcare with many countries still struggling with improving basic health outcomes, IDC said.

It further said the region holds immense potential for the vendor community, also because of the high population base and the relatively nascent stage of IT adoption in developing countries.